Troubleshooting

API security testing job times out after N hours

For larger repositories, the API security testing job could time out on the small hosted runner on Linux, which is set per default. If this happens in your jobs, you should scale up to a larger runner.

See the following documentation sections for assistance:

API security testing job takes too long to complete

See Performance Tuning and Testing Speed

Error: Error waiting for DAST API 'http://127.0.0.1:5000' to become available

A bug exists in versions of the API security testing analyzer prior to v1.6.196 that can cause a background process to fail under certain conditions. The solution is to update to a newer version of the API security testing analyzer.

The version information can be found in the job details for the dast_api job.

If the issue is occurring with versions v1.6.196 or greater, contact Support and provide the following information:

  1. Reference this troubleshooting section and ask for the issue to be escalated to the Dynamic Analysis Team.
  2. The full console output of the job.
  3. The gl-api-security-scanner.log file available as a job artifact. In the right-hand panel of the job details page, select the Browse button.
  4. The dast_api job definition from your .gitlab-ci.yml file.

Error message

  • In GitLab 15.6 and later, Error waiting for DAST API 'http://127.0.0.1:5000' to become available
  • In GitLab 15.5 and earlier, Error waiting for API Security 'http://127.0.0.1:5000' to become available.

Failed to start scanner session (version header not found)

The API security testing engine outputs an error message when it cannot establish a connection with the scanner application component. The error message is shown in the job output window of the dast_api job. A common cause of this issue is changing the APISEC_API variable from its default.

Error message

  • Failed to start scanner session (version header not found).

Solution

  • Remove the APISEC_API variable from the .gitlab-ci.yml file. The value inherits from the API security testing CI/CD template. We recommend this method instead of manually setting a value.
  • If removing the variable is not possible, check to see if this value has changed in the latest version of the API security testing CI/CD template. If so, update the value in the .gitlab-ci.yml file.

Failed to start session with scanner. Please retry, and if the problem persists reach out to support.

The API security testing engine outputs an error message when it cannot establish a connection with the scanner application component. The error message is shown in the job output window of the dast_api job. A common cause for this issue is that the background component cannot use the selected port as it’s already in use. This error can occur intermittently if timing plays a part (race condition). This issue occurs most often with Kubernetes environments when other services are mapped into the container causing port conflicts.

Before proceeding with a solution, it is important to confirm that the error message was produced because the port was already taken. To confirm this was the cause:

  1. Go to the job console.

  2. Look for the artifact gl-api-security-scanner.log. You can either download all artifacts by selecting Download and then search for the file, or directly start searching by selecting Browse.

  3. Open the file gl-api-security-scanner.log in a text editor.

  4. If the error message was produced because the port was already taken, you should see in the file a message like the following:

    • In GitLab 15.5 and later: 

      Failed to bind to address http://127.0.0.1:5500: address already in use.

    • In GitLab 15.4 and earlier: 

      Failed to bind to address http://[::]:5000: address already in use.

The text http://[::]:5000 in the previous message could be different in your case, for instance it could be http://[::]:5500 or http://127.0.0.1:5500. As long as the remaining parts of the error message are the same, it is safe to assume the port was already taken.

If you did not find evidence that the port was already taken, check other troubleshooting sections which also address the same error message shown in the job console output. If there are no more options, feel free to get support or request an improvement through the proper channels.

Once you have confirmed the issue was produced because the port was already taken. Then, GitLab 15.5 and later introduced the configuration variable APISEC_API_PORT. This configuration variable allows setting a fixed port number for the scanner background component.

Solution

  1. Ensure your .gitlab-ci.yml file defines the configuration variable APISEC_API_PORT.
  2. Update the value of APISEC_API_PORT to any available port number greater than 1024. We recommend checking that the new value is not in used by GitLab. See the full list of ports used by GitLab in Package defaults

Application cannot determine the base URL for the target API

The API security testing engine outputs an error message when it cannot determine the target API after inspecting the OpenAPI document. This error message is shown when the target API has not been set in the .gitlab-ci.yml file, it is not available in the environment_url.txt file, and it could not be computed using the OpenAPI document.

There is a order of precedence in which the API security testing engine tries to get the target API when checking the different sources. First, it tries to use the APISEC_TARGET_URL. If the environment variable has not been set, then the API security testing engine attempts to use the environment_url.txt file. If there is no file environment_url.txt, then the API security testing engine uses the OpenAPI document contents and the URL provided in APISEC_OPENAPI (if a URL is provided) to try to compute the target API.

The best-suited solution depends on whether or not your target API changes for each deployment. In static environments, the target API is the same for each deployment, in this case refer to the static environment solution. If the target API changes for each deployment a dynamic environment solution should be applied.

API security testing job excludes some paths from operations

If you find that some paths are being excluded from operations, make sure that:

  • The variable DAST_API_EXCLUDE_URLS is not configured to exclude operations you want to test.

  • The consumes array is defined and has a valid type in the target definition JSON file.

    For an example definition, see the example project target definition file.

Static environment solution

This solution is for pipelines in which the target API URL doesn’t change (is static).

Add environmental variable

For environments where the target API remains the same, we recommend you specify the target URL by using the APISEC_TARGET_URL environment variable. In your .gitlab-ci.yml, add a variable APISEC_TARGET_URL. The variable must be set to the base URL of API testing target. For example: 

stages:
  - dast

include:
  - template: API-Security.gitlab-ci.yml

variables:
  APISEC_TARGET_URL: http://test-deployment/
  APISEC_OPENAPI: test-api-specification.json

Dynamic environment solutions

In a dynamic environment your target API changes for each different deployment. In this case, there is more than one possible solution, we recommend you use the environment_url.txt file when dealing with dynamic environments.

Use environment_url.txt

To support dynamic environments in which the target API URL changes during each pipeline, API security testing engine supports the use of an environment_url.txt file that contains the URL to use. This file is not checked into the repository, instead it’s created during the pipeline by the job that deploys the test target and collected as an artifact that can be used by later jobs in the pipeline. The job that creates the environment_url.txt file must run before the API security testing engine job.

  1. Modify the test target deployment job adding the base URL in an environment_url.txt file at the root of your project.
  2. Modify the test target deployment job collecting the environment_url.txt as an artifact.

Example: 

deploy-test-target:
  script:
    # Perform deployment steps
    # Create environment_url.txt (example)
    - echo http://${CI_PROJECT_ID}-${CI_ENVIRONMENT_SLUG}.example.org > environment_url.txt

  artifacts:
    paths:
      - environment_url.txt

Use OpenAPI with an invalid schema

There are cases where the document is autogenerated with an invalid schema or cannot be edited manually in a timely manner. In those scenarios, the API security testing is able to perform a relaxed validation by setting the variable APISEC_OPENAPI_RELAXED_VALIDATION. We recommend providing a fully compliant OpenAPI document to prevent unexpected behaviors.

Edit a non-compliant OpenAPI file

To detect and correct elements that don’t comply with the OpenAPI specifications, we recommend using an editor. An editor commonly provides document validation, and suggestions to create a schema-compliant OpenAPI document. Suggested editors include:

Editor OpenAPI 2.0 OpenAPI 3.0.x OpenAPI 3.1.x
Stoplight Studio YAML, JSON YAML, JSON YAML, JSON
Swagger Editor YAML, JSON YAML, JSON YAML, JSON

If your OpenAPI document is generated manually, load your document in the editor and fix anything that is non-compliant. If your document is generated automatically, load it in your editor to identify the issues in the schema, then go to the application and perform the corrections based on the framework you are using.

Enable OpenAPI relaxed validation

Relaxed validation is meant for cases when the OpenAPI document cannot meet OpenAPI specifications, but it still has enough content to be consumed by different tools. A validation is performed but less strictly in regards to document schema.

API security testing can still try to consume an OpenAPI document that does not fully comply with OpenAPI specifications. To instruct API security testing to perform a relaxed validation, set the variable APISEC_OPENAPI_RELAXED_VALIDATION to any value, for example: 

stages:
  - dast

include:
  - template: API-Security.gitlab-ci.yml

variables:
  APISEC_PROFILE: Quick
  APISEC_TARGET_URL: http://test-deployment/
  APISEC_OPENAPI: test-api-specification.json
  APISEC_OPENAPI_RELAXED_VALIDATION: 'On'

No operation in the OpenAPI document is consuming any supported media type

API security testing uses the specified media types in the OpenAPI document to generate requests. If no request can be created due to the lack of supported media types, then an error is thrown.

Error message

  • Error, no operation in the OpenApi document is consuming any supported media type. Check 'OpenAPI Specification' to check the supported media types.

Solution

  1. Review supported media types in the OpenAPI Specification section.
  2. Edit your OpenAPI document, allowing at least a given operation to accept any of the supported media types. Alternatively, a supported media type could be set in the OpenAPI document level and get applied to all operations. This step may require changes in your application to ensure the supported media type is accepted by the application.

Error: The SSL connection could not be established, see inner exception.

API security testing is compatible with a broad range of TLS configurations, including outdated protocols and ciphers. Despite broad support, you might encounter connection errors, like this: 

Error, error occurred trying to download `<URL>`:
There was an error when retrieving content from Uri:' <URL>'.
Error:The SSL connection could not be established, see inner exception.

This error occurs because API security testing could not establish a secure connection with the server at the given URL.

To resolve the issue:

If the host in the error message supports non-TLS connections, change https:// to http:// in your configuration. For example, if an error occurs with the following configuration: 

stages:
  - dast

include:
  - template: API-Security.gitlab-ci.yml

variables:
  APISEC_TARGET_URL: https://test-deployment/
  APISEC_OPENAPI: https://specs/openapi.json

Change the prefix of APISEC_OPENAPI from https:// to http://: 

stages:
  - dast

include:
  - template: API-Security.gitlab-ci.yml

variables:
  APISEC_TARGET_URL: https://test-deployment/
  APISEC_OPENAPI: http://specs/openapi.json

If you cannot use a non-TLS connection to access the URL, contact the Support team for help.

You can expedite the investigation with the testssl.sh tool. From a machine with a bash shell and connectivity to the affected server:

  1. Download the latest release zip or tar.gz file and extract from https://github.com/drwetter/testssl.sh/releases.
  2. Run ./testssl.sh --log https://specs.
  3. Attach the log file to your support ticket.

ERROR: Job failed: failed to pull image

This error message occurs when pulling an image from a container registry that requires authentication to access (it is not public).

In the job console output the error looks like: 

Running with gitlab-runner 15.6.0~beta.186.ga889181a (a889181a)
  on blue-2.shared.runners-manager.gitlab.com/default XxUrkriX
Resolving secrets
00:00
Preparing the "docker+machine" executor
00:06
Using Docker executor with image registry.gitlab.com/security-products/api-security:2 ...
Starting service registry.example.com/my-target-app:latest ...
Pulling docker image registry.example.com/my-target-app:latest ...
WARNING: Failed to pull image with policy "always": Error response from daemon: Get https://registry.example.com/my-target-app/manifests/latest: unauthorized (manager.go:237:0s)
ERROR: Job failed: failed to pull image "registry.example.com/my-target-app:latest" with specified policies [always]: Error response from daemon: Get https://registry.example.com/my-target-app/manifests/latest: unauthorized (manager.go:237:0s)

Error message

  • In GitLab 15.9 and earlier, ERROR: Job failed: failed to pull image followed by Error response from daemon: Get IMAGE: unauthorized.

Solution

Authentication credentials are provided using the methods outlined in the Access an image from a private container registry documentation section. The method used is dictated by your container registry provider and its configuration. If your using a container registry provided by a 3rd party, such as a cloud provider (Azure, Google Could (GCP), AWS and so on), check the providers documentation for information on how to authenticate to their container registries.

The following example uses the statically defined credentials authentication method. In this example the container registry is registry.example.com and image is my-target-app:latest.

  1. Read how to Determine your DOCKER_AUTH_CONFIG data to understand how to compute the variable value for DOCKER_AUTH_CONFIG. The configuration variable DOCKER_AUTH_CONFIG contains the Docker JSON configuration to provide the appropriate authentication information. For example, to access private container registry: registry.example.com with the credentials abcdefghijklmn, the Docker JSON looks like: 

    {
    "auths": {
        "registry.example.com": {
            "auth": "abcdefghijklmn"
        }
    }
}
  2. Add the DOCKER_AUTH_CONFIG as a CI/CD variable. Instead of adding the configuration variable directly in your .gitlab-ci.ymlfile you should create a project CI/CD variable.

  3. Rerun your job, and the statically-defined credentials are now used to sign in to the private container registry registry.example.com, and let you pull the image my-target-app:latest. If succeeded the job console shows an output like: 

    Running with gitlab-runner 15.6.0~beta.186.ga889181a (a889181a)
  on blue-4.shared.runners-manager.gitlab.com/default J2nyww-s
Resolving secrets
00:00
Preparing the "docker+machine" executor
00:56
Using Docker executor with image registry.gitlab.com/security-products/api-security:2 ...
Starting service registry.example.com/my-target-app:latest ...
Authenticating with credentials from $DOCKER_AUTH_CONFIG
Pulling docker image registry.example.com/my-target-app:latest ...
Using docker image sha256:139c39668e5e4417f7d0eb0eeb74145ba862f4f3c24f7c6594ecb2f82dc4ad06 for registry.example.com/my-target-app:latest with digest registry.example.com/my-target-
app@sha256:2b69fc7c3627dbd0ebaa17674c264fcd2f2ba21ed9552a472acf8b065d39039c ...
Waiting for services to be up and running (timeout 30 seconds)...

Differing vulnerability results between consecutive scans

It is possible that consecutive scans may return differing vulnerability findings in the absence of code or configuration changes. This is primarily due to the unpredictability associated with the target environment and its state, and the parallelization of requests sent by the scanner. Multiple requests are sent in parallel by the scanner to optimize scan time, which in turn means that the exact order the target server responds to the requests is not predetermined.

Timing attack vulnerabilities that are detected by the length of time between request and response such as OS Command or SQL Injections may be detected if the server is under load and unable to service responses to the tests within their given thresholds. The same scan executions when the server is not under load may not return positive findings for these vulnerabilities, leading to differing results. Profiling the target server, Performance tuning and testing speed, and establishing baselines for optimal server performance during testing may be helpful in identifying where false positives may appear due to the aforementioned factors.

sudo: The "no new privileges" flag is set, which prevents sudo from running as root.

Starting with v5 of the analyzer, a non-root user is used by default. This requires the use of sudo when performing privileged operations.

This error occurs with a specific container daemon setup that prevents running containers from obtaining new permissions. In most settings, this is not the default configuration, it’s something specifically configured, often as part of a security hardening guide.

Error message

This issue can be identified by the error message generated when a before_script or APISEC_PRE_SCRIPT is executed: 

$ sudo apk add nodejs

sudo: The "no new privileges" flag is set, which prevents sudo from running as root.

sudo: If sudo is running in a container, you may need to adjust the container configuration to disable the flag.

Solution

This issue can be worked around in the following ways:

  • Run the container as the root user. You should test this configuration as it may not work in all cases. This can be done by modifying the CICD configuration and checking the job output to make sure that whoami returns root and not gitlab. If gitlab is displayed, use another workaround. After testing has confirmed the change is successful, the before_script can be removed. 

    api_security:
  image:
    name: $SECURE_ANALYZERS_PREFIX/$APISEC_IMAGE:$APISEC_VERSION$APISEC_IMAGE_SUFFIX
    docker:
      user: root
 before_script:
   - whoami

    Example job console output: 

    Executing "step_script" stage of the job script
Using docker image sha256:8b95f188b37d6b342dc740f68557771bb214fe520a5dc78a88c7a9cc6a0f9901 for registry.gitlab.com/security-products/api-security:5 with digest registry.gitlab.com/security-products/api-security@sha256:092909baa2b41db8a7e3584f91b982174772abdfe8ceafc97cf567c3de3179d1 ...
$ whoami
root
$ /peach/analyzer-api-security
17:17:14 [INF] API Security: Gitlab API Security
17:17:14 [INF] API Security: -------------------
17:17:14 [INF] API Security:
17:17:14 [INF] API Security: version: 5.7.0

  • Wrap the container and add any dependencies at build time. This option has the benefit of running with lower privileges than root which may be a requirement for some customers.

    1. Create a new Dockerfile that wraps the existing image. 

      ARG SECURE_ANALYZERS_PREFIX
ARG APISEC_IMAGE
ARG APISEC_VERSION
ARG APISEC_IMAGE_SUFFIX
FROM $SECURE_ANALYZERS_PREFIX/$APISEC_IMAGE:$APISEC_VERSION$APISEC_IMAGE_SUFFIX
USER root

RUN pip install ...
RUN apk add ...

USER gitlab

    2. Build the new image and push it to your local container registry before the API Security Testing job starts. The image should be removed after the api_security job has been completed. 

      TARGET_NAME=apisec-$CI_COMMIT_SHA
docker build -t $TARGET_IMAGE \
  --build-arg "SECURE_ANALYZERS_PREFIX=$SECURE_ANALYZERS_PREFIX" \
  --build-arg "APISEC_IMAGE=$APISEC_IMAGE" \
  --build-arg "APISEC_VERSION=$APISEC_VERSION" \
  --build-arg "APISEC_IMAGE_SUFFIX=$APISEC_IMAGE_SUFFIX" \
  .
docker login -u gitlab-ci-token -p $CI_JOB_TOKEN $CI_REGISTRY
docker push $TARGET_IMAGE

    3. Extend the api_security job and use the new image name. 

      api_security:
  image: apisec-$CI_COMMIT_SHA

    4. Remove the temporary container from the registry. See this documentation page for information on removing container images.

  • Change the GitLab Runner configuration, disabling the no-new-privileges flag. This could have security implications and should be discussed with your operations and security teams.

Index was outside the bounds of the array. at Peach.Web.Runner.Services.RunnerOptions.GetHeaders()

This error message indicates that the API security testing analyzer is unable to parse the value of the APISEC_REQUEST_HEADERS or APISEC_REQUEST_HEADERS_BASE64 configuration variable.

Error message

This issue can be identified by two error messages. The first error message is seen in the job console output and the second in the gl-api-security-scanner.log file.

Error message from job console: 

05:48:38 [ERR] API Security: Testing failed: An unexpected exception occurred: Index was outside the bounds of the array.

Error message from gl_api_security-scanner.log: 

08:45:43.616 [ERR] <Peach.Web.Core.Services.WebRunnerMachine> Unexpected exception in WebRunnerMachine::Run()
System.IndexOutOfRangeException: Index was outside the bounds of the array.
   at Peach.Web.Runner.Services.RunnerOptions.GetHeaders() in /builds/gitlab-org/security-products/analyzers/api-fuzzing-src/web/PeachWeb/Runner/Services/[RunnerOptions.cs:line 362
   at Peach.Web.Runner.Services.RunnerService.Start(Job job, IRunnerOptions options) in /builds/gitlab-org/security-products/analyzers/api-fuzzing-src/web/PeachWeb/Runner/Services/RunnerService.cs:line 67
   at Peach.Web.Core.Services.WebRunnerMachine.Run(IRunnerOptions runnerOptions, CancellationToken token) in /builds/gitlab-org/security-products/analyzers/api-fuzzing-src/web/PeachWeb/Core/Services/WebRunnerMachine.cs:line 321
08:45:43.634 [WRN] <Peach.Web.Core.Services.WebRunnerMachine> * Session failed: An unexpected exception occurred: Index was outside the bounds of the array.
08:45:43.677 [INF] <Peach.Web.Core.Services.WebRunnerMachine> Finished testing. Performed a total of 0 requests.

Solution

This issue occurs due to a malformed APISEC_REQUEST_HEADERS or APISEC_REQUEST_HEADERS_BASE64 variable. The expected format is one or more headers of Header: value construction separated by a comma. The solution is to correct the syntax to match what is expected.

Valid examples:

  • Authorization: Bearer XYZ
  • X-Custom: Value,Authorization: Bearer XYZ

Invalid examples:

  • Header:,value
  • HeaderA: value,HeaderB:,HeaderC: value
  • Header